CLARKSBURG, Mass. — School officials hope to have a finalist for owner's project manager by June for the school project.  

Superintendent Jonathan Lev told the School Committee on Thursday that the bidding materials are ready after consultation with the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

"We've gone back and forth with the MSBA on this [request for services]," Lev said. "It's 35 pages or something of material to outline the process."

 That was slightly cut down from the original document but still includes criteria on a point scale for initial and final interviews to guide a subcommittee of the School Building Committee in recommending a contract. The committee's final selection will be submitted to the MSBA for vote at its July meeting.

"We feel we'll get a lot of people interested in this project," Lev said, adding that the owner's project manager selected will then have the primary responsibility for preparing bid documents for the architect and contractor.

The superintendent said Laura Wood, a member of the School Building Committee, has been integral in the process. Wood is a Clarksburg resident with children in the school but is also the procurement officer for the city of North Adams.

"Laura Wood has been very, very helpful," he said. "Any questions on the RFS will go to her."

Principal Tara Barnes reported that the Parent-Teacher Group is raising funds for Chromebooks to reach the school's goal of one for each student.

The need for the technology became apparent as pupils were taking the Partnership for Assessment for Readiness for College and Careers tests this past week. The tests are taken online, as next year's Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (2.0) are expected to be. As students took them for testing, other students weren't able to use them for projects or classes.

"You can really see the need for the Chromebooks right now, so you can understand the need for investment," Barnes said.

She also reported that this year's test had been changed and students were taking less time. A separate "open-answer" section for the eighth grade had been removed, with some questions of that type integrated into the multiple choice test.

"The kids were done a lot quicker, there weren't surprises," Barnes said.

Lev said, "the format and what they were testing was the same ... but this year, there were less days, less testing."

The school is being held harmless in testing results — upward movement will be recognized but dropping scores won't. Lev noted that PARCC and the MCAS 2.0 will both be new it takes at least three years of testing to compile usable data.

Internal testing, however, will continue to provide guidance, and courses are tied to the state's Common Core curriculum.

In other news, the School Committee voted to confirm school-choice slots put forward last month.

School-choice opening will be four in kindergarten; one in first grade; four in third grade; two in six grade; five in seventh grade; and one in eighth grade.

Lev said the largest class size will 17; there are nine expected kindergartners, 13 total with the school-choice.

The school union will be sharing a speech language pathologist and certified assistant next school year. Lev said the union had been contracting with Berkshire Speech with good results but it was felt the schools would have more control over costs and hours by having a pathologist on staff.

"We have two viable candidates that look good," Lev said. "I do feel doing it this way will save us some money and increase our services ... with increased personnel I think we can do a better job."

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